However, it still doesn’t take away the diss Hickson feels was directed towards him. He says he’s amped for tonight’s game versus the Trail Blazers. In his words, “You know I’m going hard.”

He says it’s nothing personal. He would just have liked to have had a longer stay in Portland.

“I felt like I made tremendous strides from the first time I played with those guys,” Hickson said. “The relationship with my teammates was good. I was getting used to the city. I loved the fans. I felt like I built a great relationship with the fans. But it’s a business and things happen and now I’m a Nugget.”

Hickson, who averaged 10.4 points and 12.7 rebounds for the Trail Blazers last season, says Portland is a special city to him and always will be. He just elaborated on why he’s irked with comments the general manager made about him. And in the process, he took a jab at his replacement.

“It just rubbed me the wrong way some of the comments that were made by [Trail Blazers general manager] Neil Olshey,” Hickson explained to CSNNW.com. “I heard something to the extent of, ‘For the Blazers to be better, we can’t bring JJ back.’ That was one of the ones that really caught my attention. I was like, ‘wait, what?’ And they go out there and get a new center [Robin Lopez] and he has only three rebounds.”

Erik Gundersen

Erik Gundersen is the Trail Blazers beat reporter for The Columbian. He's a graduate of the Allen School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in addition earning a degree in Spanish. He's covered the NBA for four seasons. You can also occasionally find his work on ESPN.com's NBA section for their TrueCities series. He also fist-bumped with Kanye West once. Follow @BlazerBanter on twitter for more Blazers and NBA news.